May
07
2012He peers around his Momma’s shoulder and whispers shyly: “There’s a baby in Mommy’s tummy!”
It’s mere seconds before I crush all three of them in a hug. I’m overjoyed.
I can’t believe the miracle that God is growing in the quiet places inside this dear friend.
And best of all, this is the second announcement I’ve enjoyed this week.
Two new lives welling up. Two immeasurable blessings.
I don’t know about you, but I struggle with my own blessings.
Let’s be honest: Only one of our children was planned (whichever child kicked the other twin out of her egg).
Each day I sin against them. They sin against me. They sin against each other.
At 4:30 that same day, we all wrestle over a dumb doll stroller. My first reaction is to sell the stroller on Craigslist; Can’t they see I’m busy making dinner for them, busy serving them, and, by golly, can’t they just let me have a moment to get this done?!
I’m lucky this time. The sin stays in the heart. The tongue is quiet. Because of that Mommy with a baby in her tummy and how she walks with me. Because of that book
and the chapter on watching our words. Because Jesus reigned in my heart for just this one instant.
I sit down and debrief them. “Did you break fellowship with your sister over a stroller?” “Is your sister more important than the stroller?” “How do you think we should play with the stroller together?”
I wonder: Am I teaching them this life lesson on relationships and negotiations or are they teaching me? Is dinner more important or is our relationship more important?
These blessings, they’re not here to make us happy. No, they’re here to grow us into stronger joy. And joy, it’s wrought through suffering, through growing pains, through labor.
New little blessings, I can’t wait to meet you. I can’t wait to see how God uses you to grow your mommas.
# 3261-3277 of the little blessings He gives each week
- How Derek went looking for a grey onesie on his lunch break for my photo series
- How Bronwyn walks around in 1 dress up heel and one Mary Jane and no panties in her swim top
- How Bronwyn hung out with the older boys as if she belonged with them
- How Aerie and Sullivan played with playdough and cleaned it all up
- Really getting to know Chelsea
- Bronwyn standing in the yard hosing off all the big kids
- laughing over the futility of cleaning up toys
- The toad in the garden
- How somehow the girls managed to tell Sullivan about the toad and the cat! The girls really can tell stories and communicate with others!
- No poop accidents today
- My girls convincing Adyson to romp in the backyard naked with hem (and even to use the potty later for a marshmallow)
- Laughing with Joni
- Heart chat with Mandy in the parking lot
- Tossing the girls in the swimming pool
- Hanging out with SG during our outside worship service
- Hearing those shy little words announcing a secret
- Talking hearts with Julia
- Growth
Apr
30
2012
We all want to live
The Sweet Life.
Cushy
Easy
Noteworthy
Oh, dear friend,
The Sweet Life
is
so much
MORE.
Dirt under finger nails
Suffering in the path
Pretty petals torn to bits
So that we can taste
The Sweet Life
Counting 3241-3260 gifts in this hard long but, oh, so sweet life.
- How there are spoons and forks in my laundry room which is on a different floor than the kitchen: only in this season of life.
- Aeralind’s running commentary on all things related to her. “I go poop!” “I climming.” I eating” “I take it.” “oh, no! Hat!”
- How they’re caring so well for the gardens
- Conviction over manipulation
- A good long morning nap for the boy
- Peas flowering
- Tomatoes ripening on the vine
- Visit from Aunt Kay Kay
- Backyard naked artists painting themselves
- Conversations with an ardent feminist over Biblical submission
- Aeralind dressing herself
- 2nd Moleskin almost full of thanks
- 6.99 pool from last year even more fun this year
- the sweet smell (and taste) of honeysuckle
- 2 less bottoms in diapers to change- even with all the accidents
- Aerie saying “Tut, tut! It looks like rain!” while spying an umbrella.
- Crazy morning
- Boy smiling in the crook of my arm
- Dealing with my own anger
Apr
23
2012
Yesterday, I had another epic correction session with this beautiful mess.
I sat there holding her gently tight, rocking, and whispering “I love you. I’m not hurting you. I love you enough to deal with your heart. I love you. I love you. I love you.” Meanwhile she flailed, screamed, writhed, wiggled, screamed some more and chanted: “Hurt me! Hurt me! Momma! Hurt me!”
I was sitting in a warm puddle of pee that she’d let loose at the beginning of this tantrum.
For thirty minutes I sat in that pee, I rocked her, and I waited for her to wear herself out. To come to the end of herself. To accept that the correction in store for her was what she needed.
Midway through that session, while refuse dried sticky on my legs, I just began to weep.
How many times have I screamed, cried, and rejected the good gifts that Christ gives me because they weren’t gifts that I wanted?
Like my children, I want candy rather than meat and veggies. Like my children, I want things easy and my way rather than slogging through my own sin during a bit of suffering (such miniscule suffering at that!).
How much Jesus loves me! To stretch His arms around me and whisper “I love you” while I flail and scream and pee all over His good gifts, His good love.
Sometimes disciplining these little hearts is way more about correcting our own hearts than theirs.
Counting 3214-3240 gift He gives because I am His: regardless of my sinful or joyful reactions
- a glorious rain to help freshly girl-planted Lima beans grow
- Quiet morning with Sedryn and Derek
- how they’re learning names and occasionally call us “Derek and Bee-lissa!”
- Taking Bronwyn out on a date
- The proud way she handed over her coupon for ice cream and said please
- Her delighted “Tank you!”
- How she asked to sit in my lap to eat it
- How she protected a mint in her pocket for Aeralind all the way home
- Sharing the motherhood journey with Julia
- Tears
- Encouragement
- Long chat with Karen
- Loving the Little Years
- How proud Aerie was of watering the garden
- Gifts
- A looong long morning of disciplining
- Shepherding Group that night
- Rachel telling me how happy the girls made her with hugs and no-crying while she watched the SG kids
- How much I needed to hear that they could behave well
- Fun dino bibs
- Just doing life with Karen at TJ Maxx
- Finally going to a SG and really loving it
- Sedryn eating a grahm cracker stick
- How Aerie asks Daddy every night to “Climb Tah-rees!”
- Buying the girls giant water bottles the day before we decided to potty train Aeralind
- Derek making the remainder of the Pooh diapers disappear so she would be willing to train
- Encouraging Becky
- Laughter
- Growth
- Long discipline battles with B that show me my own sin
- Chatting with Carol
- Hearing Mandy share her hear
- Crock-pot smells all over the house
- Quiet early mornings with the little guy
- Mandy getting Sedryn’s first laugh
- Derek’s cocky little smile when he said he felt good about this interview
- Dr. Whitehead’s Pooh tie enthralling the girls
Apr
16
2012
Sometimes a little spontaneity is a great thing. Sunday night we talked about taking the girls to an aquarium while Derek had four days off work. Monday morning we packed everybody up and took a two night stay in Gatlinburg. I think we were actually packed up before we had a place to stay!
We stayed in a two bedroom condo that I took a picture of while riding the Ober Gatlinburg tram. I think spontaneous agenda free trips are the best way to travel with toddlers. I can’t wait until we do it again!
#3166- 3213 Blessings that I feel to small to hold!
- Packing everybody up for a trip we planned less than 10 hours earlier
- Aerlaind snoring on the ride up
- Bronwyn doing preety well on no nap
- Sedry sleeping in the car
- mountain views
- Kids eat free!
- Girls hopping on a swing
- Veggietales and cuddles
- Girls managing ot sleep together in the Queen rather well
- closet nook in our bedrom for Sedryn’s PnP
- Sunrise
- Non-stick pans for the gril who forgot to pack oil
- Pancake mix from Mandy
- Girls bok-ing like chickens at the plates
- Pancakes and fruit
- Awe on little faces as sharks swam overhead
- Excitement over peguins
- Aerie standing right over the blowhole as it randomly squirted air
- Carrying Bronwyn, Walking-bruise, in my Ergo after another fall
- Rest time
- Hearing girls squeal endlessly as they ran back and forth over the hanging bridge at NOC
- First vacation at an age when the kids did not care if we drove aimlessly for an hour looking for something to do
- Bronwyn pooping in the potty in the condo!
- Handmade chocolates
- 25 cent merry-go-round
- Anticipation over the “choo-choo”: the Ober Gatlinburg tram
- Aerie sitting on her daddy’s lap squealing “Whoa!!!” at each tram support
- Bronwyn puking outside and while wearing a raincoat after daddy spun her too hard on a tire swing: easy clean-up!
- Stopping to romp at a park with Auntie Jenn
- Bronwyn squealing as Zoe licked her hand
- Snatches of hearts shared
- Sedryn sleeping in my arms
- Driving straight to shepherding group
- Laughing so hard I snorted candy into my nose when our supposed-to-be-sleeping girls turned on a blaring stereo!
- Sharing in small group
- Hearing others share at MOPS
- the gospel
- Eye doctor appointment
- cute new eyeglasses being made
- No more old eyeglasses headache!
- new haircut
- the way Aerie says “No. I do it!”
- Laughter when we asked Bronwyn if she needed help and her saying “Yes, I do need help!” and continuing with her fit rather than saying “Help, please!”
- Strawberry covered faces
- Date day with the girls
- Them trying on shirts in the changing room
- Sharing a lunch outside with just the girls
- Derek getting S on a good nap schedule
- Sedryn sleeping from 8-5:45!!! Best stretch of sleep I’ve had since he was conceived!
Apr
09
2012“You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink.”
― G.K. Chesterton
Oh, all these beautiful graces too numerous to count. But I’ll keep trying.
#3131- 3165 of the innumerable graces I count
- Re-listening to the Total Marriage Fitness Series
- Date night with Derek
- Finishing this Top
- MOPS play date fun
- Mom arriving just as I got very sick from a meal
- Little girls trying on shoes with grandma for 45 minutes
- Lots of fun new play dough toys
- B keeping up with all the 7+ year old kids at the farm
- Gratitude journal flapping in the breeze
- Sunday coming!
- First real leaves on seedlings
- Hollyhocks transplanting well
- Perfect farm weather
- Toddler girls bringing eggs from the hen house for the first time
- Mandy holding a dog for Bronwyn while she tells the do “NO EAT ME!!!”
- Aeralind running in barefoot and screaming about her feet and us treating her for ant bites
- The kids telling us that she actually walked over a live electric fence wire
- Little girl not hurt badly at all
- Bronwyn snuggling with Grandma
- Aeralind sitting on Jonathon’s lap
- Laughter over Larry dumping the hayride trailer
- No one hurt
- Rest
- Being able to serve
- Jo’s Banana pudding! YUM YUM!
- Mom enjoying the farm
- Exhausted girls falling asleep before we even got off Carol’s street
- Finding Aeralind’s tick first thing in the morning
- Her being still as I gently tugged him loose
- Baby boy playing with his pacifier
- First taste of puffs
- Cheeks full of food
- Weary bodies
- Derek taking the girls to a park while I rest and heal up a bit
- Nursling playing with my hair
